


piece by piece

by bleucheese



Category: The Little Mermaid (1989), The Little Mermaid - All Media Types
Genre: Child Death, F/M, Growing Up, Magic, Minor Character Death, One Shot, Underage Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:41:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27238207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bleucheese/pseuds/bleucheese
Summary: Ursula was born the day Prince Triton was crowned King. The commoners pressed right up to a barrier of hard-shelled crab guards, hoping for a peek of their new King. Ursula's parents, however, were not among them. Her mother was dead, the body floating side to side upon the sea floor, and she was crying in her father's arms.Or, the other reason Ursula needed Ariel's voice.
Relationships: Ursula (Disney)/Original Character(s), Ursula (Disney)/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	piece by piece

Ursula was born the day Prince Triton was crowned King. The glitterati of the kingdom were gathered around the palace lights, vying for a viewpoint close to the throne. Behind them, the commoners pressed right up to a barrier of the Prince's hard-shelled crab guards, hoping for a peek of their new King. Ursula's parents, however, were not among them. Her mother was dead, the body floating side to side upon the sea floor, and she was crying in her father's arms. For his part, he seemed completely disaffected by his erstwhile girlfriend's passing, rubbing ciguatera he'd purchased from a local dealer into his gills. Once he worked his way through the vial, he finally calmed enough to move before the regular guard patrol arrived. Aenon was still relatively strong, despite having lost the toned muscle of his youth, and picked up his girlfriend's body easily. With Ursula in his left arm and the body in his right, he swam toward the trenches, weaving to and fro as the ciguatera got the best of him. Stopping at the dark, yawning gap on the edge of the kingdom, he laid Ursula's mother on the edge and pressed a heavy rock into the band of her top, to weigh her down. Then, he looked around furtively- magic was an extremely rare gift outside the royal family- and with a wave of his hand, blasted her runic name into the rock. Finally, using the very edge of his tail, he nudged her over into the abyss and made for home, Ursula still tucked into the crevice of his elbow.

________________________________

When she is thirteen, Aenon catches moon-fever. That is the first time he sends Ursula out alone to open the shop. Aenon sells objects that he called "odds and ends", but Ursula knows where their inventory really comes from. Every morning, after her magic lesson, her father hands her his hardest shells, and sends her outside. She fills the shells with sand, and uses them to scratch any identifying marks off of the stolen goods in their inventory crates. Then, Father passes his hands gently over the object, pulses of magic smoothing the scratches out, and tells her a price. She dips a carefully sanded piece of driftwood into their small well of squid-ink, and marks a price on a small seashell. Then, she ties one end of a thin braided-seaweed string to the seashell, and the other end to the product, and arranges it carefully on the shelf. After dinnertime, she swims home with the tailor's rowdy children and plays a game or two, until their father returns from work and she crosses the shell-lined causeway to her own home. Father usually arrives much later, long after she falls asleep.

But now, he is ill, so Ursula will have to handle the shop herself. He is too feverish to even give her last-minute instructions, so she leaves him with two plates of kelp-wrapped sashimi and a kiss on the cheek. The first day is, for the most part, uneventful. The usual sorts of customers turn up to make their purchases- dodgy-looking, scarred men, haggard and stringy-haired women. Late at night, after she closes the storefront, she accepts deliveries from the masked mermen at the side door, carefully logging how many ingots she pays for their sacks of stolen goods. She keeps her eyes carefully hooded, not daring to look them in the face. Some of them try to unsettle her, but she doesn't respond to their taunting, and soon enough, they exchange their goods for ingots and drift away. At long last, they all leave, and she begins to lock up the shop, yawning. The swim home through the empty causeways will not be pleasant, but she's tucked a small sac of squid ink into her bag, to disorient anyone who tries to give her trouble so she can swim away. Just as she is about to leave, a voice calls out to her. "Hey, Aenon? I'm late, sorry, but could I-"

It's dark, dark enough that this stranger has mistaken her for her father. She taps the old anglerfish dorsal they hang over the entrance for light, and it slowly winks into being. She can see the man- boy, really, on the cusp of manhood- who spoke to her. His eyes are a bright, viridian green, and his tail a stunning, rich blue. He twists his long brown hair as he notices her, his eyes widening and catching the light. "Oh, hey. Are you Aenon's assistant or something?"

"Or something," she replies, suspicious. 

"Look, I was supposed to hand these in tonight-" he shakes a large bag- "and I know I'm late, and the shop closes when the shop closes, and all that, but would you do me a favor? Just this once?"

His eyes are wide and pleading, and the muscles on his broad shoulders bunch up as he holds the heavy bag out to her. Ursula feels a twang of attraction deep in the pit of her stomach. She wants to make an exception for him, she really does, but she imagines what Aenon would say, if he found out- what he would say if this merman showed up late, expected special treatment a second time.

"No-" she says, hesitantly, and then with more confidence. "No. I'm sorry, we close when we close."

The broad shoulders slump in disappointment, the bag falling to his side. "Right, then. Sorry. I'll come back tomorrow, on time."

She nods to him, briskly, and reaches up to tap the dorsal light again, but before she can, he speaks again. "What's your name?"

"Ursula," she replies. She can feel his eyes on her, not threatening but considering, appraising. 

"Your tail, Ursula," he says, nodding to himself. "It's pretty, I like it." With that, he swims away, and she watches his dark shape until it disappears around a corner.

When she gets home, she replays his words in her mind again and again.  
_________________________________

She is in the first flushes of her womanhood, breasts just beginning to fill out her tops, hair beginning to grow long and luscious. Boys are mysterious and frightening, but they excite her nevertheless. She wakes, every so often, from dreams of her own purple tail delicately wrapped around a longer, wider one - sometimes it's blue, sometimes red, sometimes other colors. 

However, she is a practical mermaid, and she knows that despite her constant thoughts of _him_ , he probably hasn't thought of her at all since that day. She shoves speculation aside and maintains her routine at the shop. It's a slow day, and she's sitting at the counter sanding away at items when _he_ swims inside. She almost drops what she's holding, surprise making her clumsy. "Now you're early," she says. 

"I'm not here for that," he replies. "I'll come back. Right now, I wanted to- to buy something?"

It's phrased as a question, but Ursula treats it as a statement, showing him some of their newest items. He listens, seemingly interested, and asks questions. Once she's shown him everything, he purchases a cheap, low-grade pearl bracelet and flips it between his fingers. As she's counting his change at the register, he introduces himself as Neifion.

He returns that evening, with two large kelp-sacks, and they do not speak to each other beyond the requisite transaction. But he comes to the shop yet again the next morning, and again asks her to walk him through the items lining the walls. When he slowly, cautiously begins to flirt with her, he finds she blushes easily and smiles freely for him.

Neifion is seventeen and confident, cheerful. He pulls Ursula out of her shell, and she has to take special care to ensure she isn't too busy laughing with him to handle customers. He asks her out, and she accepts, and then promptly bans him from the shop (excepting his nightly delivieries). He takes it well, and they swim out together that weekend to lie in the corals and watch the sea turtle migration overhead. Ursula feels a little bad about leaving Aenon alone at home, but he was almost completely recovered. He'd shooed her out the door that morning, telling her to go outside and have fun. He didn't know she was on a _date_ , of course, but she will tell him. Eventually.

Now that her father is better, he takes over the shop again, and she returns to her task of item anonymization. It's another few months before she finally introduces 'Fion to her father, and of course, the latter is incensed. His daughter could _not_ , he rages, date a common thief. 'Fion looks stunned, stricken into silence, and Ursula's heart breaks as he leaves without a word to her or her father. She can't forgive either of them until her erstwhile boyfriend returns, two weeks later, with respectable employment at a seaweed farm. 

"I'm earning less," he admits, as Ursula and Aenon stare him down. "But it's legal, and I could get promoted in a few years-" He cuts himself off with an _oof_ as Ursula barrels into him for a hug. 

"You did that for me?" she asks, almost tearful.

"Well," he replies, embarrassed. "What else was I supposed to do? Make you choose between me and your father?"

With that, they have Aenon's blessing. He's always wanted legitimacy for Ursula, for her to run a legal business and enjoy the protection of the law, and it's enough for him to see that Neifion will support that. 

Ursula and 'Fion date, over the next few years, and he does indeed get promoted at the farm. Their small family of three becomes very close, and 'Fion spends more time at Ursula's house than at his own apartment. On the day he's promoted, Ursula and Aenon congratulate him with caviar and swordfish.

Ursula learns much more about her boyfriend. He left home at fourteen and fell in with a gang of burglars, which kept him off the streets. He'd been addicted to ciguatera, but quit just a year before they'd met. He loved coral and hated geysers, and couldn't balance properly on a seahorse, no matter how many times she tried to teach him. When they were together, he spun her ashy-white hair between his fingers and kissed her until she was dizzy.

One evening, he took her to the coral field where they'd had their first date. "Ursula," he began. "I fell in love with you the moment I saw your exquisite purple tail in the dorsal-light that night. You make me a happier, better man- you make me want everything in the world, so that I could give it all to you. I wanted to ask you if- if you would marry me."

Ursula gasps in surprise and joy. The proposal comes seemingly out of nowhere. They are both still young, and thoughts of marriage hadn't even crossed her mind, but the more she thinks about it, the more sense it makes. They could live together if they were married, and he could help take care of Aenon as he slows down, and- and Ursula and her _husband_ could finally partake of the marriage bed. "Yes, 'Fion, of course!" she exclaims, alight with joy and surprise. "Yes!"

He sweeps her into his arms, turning her over and over through the water, both of them giggling with joy. Finally, they settle, and 'Fion slips her hand into his. "I have something else for you," he says, the deep rumble of his voice echoing from his chest into her own. Ursula feels him slip something onto her wrist, and lifts her arm up to look at it- it's the old, low-grade pearl bracelet, the very first item he purchased at the shop. She buries her face in his chest and sobs with joy, and he holds her, there in the reef, until the tears subside.

______________________________

The two of them begin to plan for a wedding, but Ursula has one last secret - that of her magic. She's terrified to tell her fiancé, but when she works up the courage to show him Father's de-scratching trick, all she sees in his eyes is wonder. She knows, then, that she will be safe with him.  
_______________________________

They are married, and just a few years later, Aenon's health begins to fail. They nurse him as long as they can, but Ursula can see it in his eyes- he is ready to move on, to reunite with her mother. He writes his will in bed, leaving everything to Ursula, and she sits by his side and cries, letting her husband handle the legalese and the funeral arrangements.  
_______________________________

Life goes on, even without her beloved father, and Ursula becomes pregnant. 'Fion reacts to her news with overflowing joy, and they begin to carefully save money to provide for the child. Ursula gives up her nail-polish and lipstick, and 'Fion his Friday drinks, but it is worth it when they feel the baby move against the inside of Ursula's belly. 

A few months in, Ursula insists 'Fion take her back to the corals where he proposed. Once they arrive, she checks over her shoulder for watchers and lays out a runic pattern in seaweed, letting the corals power it gently. She is loath to use her own magical powers directly, in case it might harm the baby. The coral-power proves potent enough, and the runes shift and change, as if caught in a whirlpool, and finally resolve. Ursula reaches for her husband's hands, and squeezes. "Look, 'Fion."

He looks, but does not understand, and turns back to her in confusion. 

"The runes," she explains. "Our child is a little girl."

Wonderment breaks across his face like a wave on the rocks, clearing any remnants of anxiety and concern from his expression.  
_____________________________________

Ursula's captivated by the bold child swimming into her shop. She's accompanied by a stoic man, who Ursula summarily ignores. She places a hand on the swell of her stomach, feeling her daughter wriggle and stretch, as if she's aware of the other child sharing her mother's attention. The little redhead is grinning now, pawing through the box of land-detrius they keep in the corner and sell by the pound.

"What are you looking for?" asks Ursula, smiling indulgently.

"Oh- oh, me?" the child asks, turning. 

"Yes, you."

"I just like to collect fun things! Gadgets and gizmos and funny little thingamabobs- like this!" Excited, she pulls a round object from the box. It's inscribed with odd land-dwellers' runes, and a red arrow pinned at its center moves every time the girl turns. "This is so cool," she continues, fascinated. "No matter where I swim or how I turn the arrow moves to point in the same direction!"

"Well," replies Ursula, charmed, "we have a lot of flotsam and jetsam come through here. If I find anything especially odd, I shall save it for you."

Her eyes widen, mouth opening slightly. "Really? Really really?"

"Yes, really."

"Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyou-" She swims right around the counter to hug a shocked Ursula, knocking her backwards slightly. 

"All right, it's no problem," she laughs, peeling the girl off of her. The stoic man chooses that moment to interrupt, coughing abruptly. 

"I'm afraid your father will be expecting you for dinner."

"Sorry, Ro! I'm coming!" she exclaims, emerging from behind the counter. Both the man and the girl's yellow-and-blue pet fish make to follow her out, but she turns just at the entrance. "Thanks again," she calls out. "See you soon!" 

Ursula waves in response, and they depart. She can hear the man scolding her outside- "It's Rowan, not Ro,"- and smiles to herself. 

She spends the next few weeks picking out the most interesting bits of flotsam from the new inventory, and saves them carefully in a box under the counter. However, she doesn't see the girl again.  
____________________________

Ursula and her husband finally agree on a name for their daughter. His first suggestion had been Nerissa, which Ursula found pretentious, and her first suggestion had been Calypso, which he found ominous. They throw names back and forth for months, until they finally agree on Delphine. It's a pretty name, and Ursula carefully inks it onto what will be the baby's first top after she is born. 

The top is never worn. Ursula gives birth, and the three of them are a happy family for two blissful weeks, until Delphine begins to scream. They take her to any doctor that will see her, but they all say the same thing- a birth defect means that Delphine's heart will not beat fast enough to sustain life. 'Fion begs Ursula to try magic, and she does, sending him to the black market for books and ingredients, delving into spells more complex than she's ever attempted before. None of them work. _The heart is a tricky organ_ , one author writes, and Ursula throws the book at the cabinets. She feels impotent and fragile, as if her rage made her so brittle she would break. 

Despite her best efforts, Delphine passes away. Neifion is a wreck, so Ursula pushes her emotions to the side and schedules the funeral. She and her husband no longer speak to one another. He is out all day, doing Poseidon knows what, and she spends all day in bed, cuddled up with the top she embroidered for her daughter.

Some time later, she ventures outside. The pantry has been empty for days, and she cannot ignore her body's demands any longer. On her way back, some instinct compels her to check in at her father's shop. She finds Neifion there. He's clearly been sleeping on a seaweed-mat in the back room, and is staring up at the stacks of inventory, eyes unseeing. Next to him is a small jar of ciguatera. 

Ursula takes the ciguatera and returns home, going back to the store late that night. She finds 'Fion in withdrawal, shaking but awake and aware. "You're using again?" she asks softly.

"Can you blame me?" he replies.

He moves back into the house, and Ursula doesn't say another word about his drug use. He will cope in his own way, and she in hers. Nevertheless, it's still a shock to her when she finds him dead one day, passed out on what used to be Aenon's bed. She blasts the bed apart with a shot of magic, and arranges yet another funeral.

When she returns from 'Fion's funeral, she feels dull, empty. There was nobody worth living for, not anymore- maybe he'd had the right idea, maybe she, too, should pump herself full of ciguatera til there's no space left for sorrow. She tries the drug, that night, and the pain finally numbs. Lightheaded, her mind wanders along different paths faster than she can follow. The next morning, she wakes on the floor with a vicious headache, and several bruises she can't remember the source of- but the drug has given her an idea. Magic was, at its core, about balance. King Triton's trident was a perfect example, boasting symmetric creative and destructive properties. When searching for a way to heal Delphine, she'd come across a ritual that could pull a soul from a body, meant to heal victims of possession. She'd passed over it then, but now an idea begins to take root in her mind. If there was a ritual to pull a soul from life into death, its inversion must be able to pull from death into life. She sits up (too quickly, as the room spins around her), and pulls every book in the house from its shelf, combing through them to find the instructions. 

She quickly copies it out, and then writes out its inversion next to it. It looks sound. She is afraid to believe, still, but cannot stop the hope welling up within her. She could get Delphine back, and maybe someday, even her beloved Neifion.

The ingredient list, however, is daunting. She will need to reconstruct a vessel for her daughter's soul, a body capable of hosting a life-spark. She opens up the shop that very day, to mine the burglar gangs for information. If she is to build such a body, she will need parts.

The parts, unfortunately, are fiendishly expensive. She writes out a list of approximate costs, and compares them to the shop's ledgers. Even with the money she and 'Fion saved for Delphine, it'd take her nearly a century to earn enough. She needs a better source of income. 

At first, Ursula considers becoming an assassin, but the rates are still too low. Available jobs, even on the black market are, of course, even less lucrative than Aenon's shop. She needs to offer an _exclusive_ service, something only she can do, something she can easily sell at a markup- and then it comes to her. Of course. _Magic_.

________________________________________

Ursula's first client is a rich nobleman from Triton's court. He knows her only as Calypso, and pays her ingots by the pouch in exchange for setting a celibacy charm on the mistress he is feuding with. She sits at home, that evening, and runs the money through her fingers. 

Word of her services quickly spreads, and her client base grows. However, with the publicity comes increased attention from law enforcement. After a close call involving not one, but three teams of soldiers, Ursula concludes this will no longer work. She needs a shopfront just outside the kingdom's borders. 

She sells her father's shop, and the house, anonymously and uses the proceeds to purchase a difficult-to-access cave beyond the border.

Then she sets up shop, much like Aenon must have done, long before she was born. All the driftwood and stray kelp in the cave is thrown out, and she brings new furniture in, piece by piece. Scrying-table, vibrascope, cauldron, chairs, bed, and finally, the new shop counter. On top, she puts the old cash register from her father's shop. Finally, she paints a sign- _Sea Witch Ursula, Potions and Spells_ \- and affixes it to the top of the cave. However, it still feels like something is missing. She returns one last time to Aenon's shop, and there, shoved into a corner and half-crushed, is the box of odds and ends she'd been keeping for that odd child from so long ago. _Flotsam and jetsam_ , it's labeled. She picks it up, and swims back to her new home. 

Before she can make it inside, she's accosted by two eels in her own front yard. "Oh!" she exclaims, surprised. "Hello! Are you my first customers?"

They shake their heads at her in reply, waggish. "Wwwwee are looking for work, sssss-" hisses one of them. "Wwwee wisssssh- to be your asssssistantsssss, yessss."

"Assistants?" she asks, skeptically. She has never had an assistant, not even when 'Fion wanted to fill that role. "I'm not so sure about that."

The eels look at each other, having some sort of conversation with their eyes. "Wwwee have much to offer," says the left. "Electricityyy-" hisses the one on the right, excitedly, weaving to and fro. Ursula's jaw drops. Electricity was a resource she'd resigned herself to a lack of. Even the smallest amounts were auctioned off, because it was so hard to store and release underwater. Having it live, from a pair of eels, was beyond her wildest dreams.

"What do you want in return?" she asks, eyes narrowing. This is far too good to be true. "Teach usssss-" says the right. "Show usssss the trickssss of magic, and lend ussss some of your power, sssss-"

Nothing good could come of giving these creatures part of her power. The severing and transfer process is extremely painful, and has been known to drive mermaids mad. But, she reasons, she doesn't need all that much _power_ to bring Delphine back. She needs the soul, which she can summon easily, the body, which she will gather materials for, and the life-spark, which she could create from live electricity, since it would be so readily available. The constraint she faces is resourcing, not power- and so she strikes a deal with the eels. They tell her their names, which are garbled-sounding hisses she cannot discern. After attempting to replicate the hisses a few times, she gives up. "Is there something else I can call you? Anything?"

They look at her, then at each other, as if confused again. "You may name ussss?" right suggests hesitantly. 

"Alright then," she replies, looking around for inspiration. Then, she remembers the box in her arms, and laughs. "Wait, I know. You can be Flotsam, and you, Jetsam."  
__________________________

At first glance, Flotsam and Jetsam are identical - green eels with black eyes, tails the same length. On closer inspection, though, Flotsam has small bumps on his eyelids that Jetsam doesn't, and Jetsam's swim is a shorter, quicker undulation where Flotsam's is longer and lazier. Customers, however, cannot tell them apart, nor do they care to try. Ursula is asked for all sorts of concoctions and services, and word of her modest shop spreads even beyond the kingdom. Later that year, Ursula is able to make her first purchase with which to resurrect her Delphine. A lovely pair of eyes, shiny and viridian green, just like 'Fion's, sit on her shelf.

Year by year, she accumulates parts for her daughter. But one afternoon, when she's in disguise (to avoid the warrant out for her arrest), going into town to buy Delphine's gills, she spots King Triton swimming about with his entourage. Unusually, he has his trident with him. All the magic she's been doing has given Ursula a deeper sense of power than she had before, and she can feel it rolling off the trident in waves, pinging where it breaks across her skin. Against her better judgment, she changes course, and carefully tails the royal caravan through the causeways.

The caravan crosses the edge of the kingdom, moving into the wild lands beyond, and a small contingent of guards stays behind, detaining citizens who try to follow. Fortunately, Ursula is no simple citizen. She ducks into an alleyway, and with a quick murmur, turns herself invisible and follows.

Several miles later, the caravan finally stops. Triton's second daughter, a tall young woman with brown hair and an orange tail, is lying on the sea floor. Blood is seeping out of her tail at an alarming rate. Ursula dodges the guards and moves closer to get a better look- and gasps. The girl's tail itself has been severed, by some awful piece of land-junk. She's sobbing, screaming, her hair strewn about her face. King Triton leans down and kisses her forehead, smoothing her hair back. He whispers something Ursula cannot hear, and then, with abrupt, powerful force, waves his trident. At once, the girl's tail begins to regrow. Ursula does not know how long they float there, her and the king and his guards, until the girl's tail is fully healed. 

The implications don't register until she's at home, tossing and turning in bed. If she had the _trident_ she wouldn't need to put together a body, piece by piece. She wouldn't need to summon the soul separately, meld it with the life-spark, thread it carefully through the flesh. She could simply channel the magic of the trident to pull Delphine back to her. She is aware, however, that it is a long shot. Stealing the royal trident is far beyond her current capabilities, and manual construction still seems the fastest route to getting her daughter back. But she swears to herself, if she ever sees an opportunity to steal the trident, she will not pass it up.  
_______________________________

Several more years pass, and Delphine's body is almost perfect. All Ursula needs now is a voice. Voices, however, are tricky, finicky ingredients. They must be given freely, and the black market where she found many of the other parts has neither demand nor supply for an ingredient as esoteric as voice. But then, opportunity falls into her lap. She hears through the grapevine that Triton's youngest daughter needs the services of a sea-witch, and sends Flotsam and Jetsam to tempt the girl. Sure enough, she swims trustingly into Ursula's lair, flanked by the ever-reliable eels. Ursula barely hears the girl's introductions. Her mind is engaged in a fierce debate with itself- trident, or voice?

As the girl explains her situation, Ursula makes her decision. She will ask for the voice, and maybe something extra if the girl is naïve enough. The remainder of Delphine's body is finished, anyway, and as perfect as Ursula could make it. She cannot gamble her daughter's life for the trident, not when she is so close to success. The girl, Ariel, doesn't want to give up her voice outright. Very well, who would? 

She strikes a deal with the silly little chit- if Ariel can seduce her land-love in three days, then she, Ursula, will refund her the voice, and let her keep the legs. Otherwise, both the voice and Ariel will be hers to keep (Ariel is in better condition than the material she's purchased- if she replaces the hair and the eyes, the rest will be usable with a simple de-age brew). Flotsam and Jetsam bring over the contract, each clause written out meticulously using the same driftwood and ink-barrel from Aenon's shop. The poor, unfortunate girl pinches the dipped, stained wood between two fingers, and signs her life away, trapping her voice in an unassuming-looking seashell container.

In return, Ursula holds up her end of the deal, reforming Ariel's tail into a pair of legs and sending her towards the beach. Then, she stands in front of a mirror, preparing her own transformation. She adds everything land-men are so fond of, trying to imitate the images sirens project- youth, beauty, vitality, magnetism. Leaving Flotsam and Jetsam with orders to guard Delphine's body, she swims up, higher and higher, until she reaches a small rock outcropping next to the beach. Holding her breath, she pops her head above the water and drags herself onto the sand, then uncorks and downs her transformation brew in one go. She shudders as it takes root, fins molding into feet, tail separating into legs. The voice, however, is custom. _Sorry, Delphine_ , she thinks, _Mommy needs to borrow your voice, just for a little bit_. She'd done her research back at the shop, scrying every detail she could find of Ariel and Eric's interaction. The voice is her secret weapon. 

She swallows the voice, letting it fill her throat and lungs, and tests out some musical scales. She leans over the water, and takes a final look at herself, the lovely cut of her cheekbones and perfect fall of her hair. "Just three more days, Delphine," she says aloud, amidst the roar of the ocean and the squawks of the seagulls. "Just a little longer."


End file.
